KEY POINTS

Australia and 36 other industrialised countries signed up for binding emission cuts by 2020.

Australia’s trade minister says it is the right thing for business and the planet.

The protocol locks in only developed states, but the US refuses to ratify it.

International climate change talks have ended with agreement to extend the landmark Kyoto Protocol and a pledge by Western countries to pay developing nations for the damage caused by climate change. But the agreement has left the protocol agreed to in 1997 with a greatly reduced number of signatories – only 37, including Australia and members of the European Union.

The talks at the weekend in Doha also failed to secure a commitment by countries to increase cuts in greenhouse gases in the face of growing scientific evidence that the rate of emissions growth is making it unlikely that global warming will be kept below two degrees. Instead, the deal “urges” developed countries to increase emission targets and for signatories to report back by April 2014 on whether they will be increased.

“It was not an easy ride. It was not a fast ride, but we managed to cross the bridge and hopefully we can increase our speed,” European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said.

In a vindication of the federal government’s decision to enter into a second commitment period of Kyoto, the deal prevents countries such as New Zealand from buying cheap international carbon credits. And a cap was placed on countries’ ability to sell surplus “hot air” credits generated from under-shooting national targets.

Climate change parliamentary secretary Mark Dreyfus said the agreement to renew the Kyoto Protocol from January 1, 2013 was important as it was the first global treaty to set binding obligations on countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Doha had also laid the foundations for the new global agreement and set a timetable for achieving agreement by 2015, he said.

“This was the first year of a four-year negotiation on the new agreement and progress was encouraging,” Mr Dreyfus said.

“The Doha outcome makes clear that this will be an agreement with legal force and that all countries will be covered.”

But international aid agency Oxfam Australia said poor countries had left the negotiations with little more than when they arrived. It is not clear whether the commitment on developed countries is in addition to funding they have already agreed to provide for international aid. Nor was there any agreement on how developed countries would meet their promise to provide $100 billion in funding by 2020 to developing countries.

Institute of Public Affairs climate change director Tim Wilson said by broadening the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process countries had made it harder to reach a deal by 2015.

“What these negotiations need is to focus on less, not more. Broadening the process simply makes it harder to secure a deal,” Mr Wilson said.

“Considering how little progress was made this year and that the process has been broadened, the likelihood of a new treaty struck by the end of 2015 is looking difficult to achieve,” he said.

Climate Institute deputy CEO Erwin Jackson said the next two years “will test the credibility of both major parties’ emission commitments and their readiness to achieve more than the minimum 5 per cent 2020 target”.

Under the second commitment period of Kyoto, Australia has agreed to reduce its emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels but has left the way open to increase this pledge to up to 25 per cent if other countries also act.